I just supported #MAYDAYUS, a crowdfunded, kickstarted campaign to reclaim our democracy. You can check it out here: http://mayday.us

MAYDAY.US is a superPAC to end all superPACs.

They are pushing for fundamental election reform to get money out of politics, restoring our democracy to one of the people rather than one of the fat cat political donors.

Their strategy is to support candidates who, once elected, are committed to getting money out of politics. The ultimate goal is eradication of the Citizen’s United decision and the unlimited political spending with it through a constitutional amendment.

Don’t think this is an issue? In the 2012 election 0.00042% of Americans donated three thirds of all money given to Super PAC.(Source: http://bit.ly/1lWDWxi). That is 132 Americans donating more than EVERYONE ELSE. This money has bought the lack of policy we have seen since then.

The MAYDAY movement is has single-minded focus of reforming our country’s election process, which will in turn make politicians responsive only to the public’s concern rather than to special well-endowed interests. This inevitable victory on election reform will be a windfall for every other movement with broad public support that has been stifled due to lack of billionaire backing, from LGBQ rights to gun control.

Throughout the American West, the United States Forest Service is scrambling to evacuate homes and contain destructive wildfires. These fire epidemics are getting worse every summer. Analysts blame urban encroaching into forests, global warming drying out the West, and bad luck.

Meanwhile, Washington’s sequestration and budget cuts have just axed the wildfire protection budget by more than forty-percent.

A gridlocked congress’s inability to act has pushed President Obama to preemptively reducing programs to offset future spending caps. These cuts are on top of the millions lost to the sequestration eroding the Forest Service’s budget. The Hazardous Fuels Reduction Program, responsible for controlling damaging megablazes, has lost $208 million of its original $500 million dollar budget. As the Forest Service chooses how to allocate its meager resources, experts are predicting worsening fires throughout the foreseeable future.

The United States must invest in wildfire protection instead of cutting funding. It also must spend smarter. Proactive strategy, ranging from clearing at-risk brush to lighting clearing fires, are progressively considered the best option for the fiscally starved Forest Service. Rather than fighting megablazes head on preemptive action curtails megablazes from ever burning out of control of threatening communities. These preventive methods are the cheapest option to saving endangered towns; every dollar spent on prevention multiplies itself into ten dollars saved on firefighter costs. To unlock the funds needed to reinstate funding to the Forest Services it will take political action from Congress, the institution originally responsible for the crippling cuts.

Many Republican Congressmen, ironically representing the fire-plagued west, are responsible for the sequestration and budget cuts. These austerity hawks are endeavoring to “starve the beast” of big government; by choking off the federal programs and taxes these zealots intend to force the nation towards smaller government. The Republican leadership is now self-immolating its own districts to uphold a deranged ideology. It’s no wonder Congress’s approval rating has plunged to ten percent. Another record.

After three years of arduous delays Bradley Manning has finally had his day in court. The documents and videos that he made public to the world revealed thousands of unreported killings and gruesome maimings of civilians throughout Afghanistan and Iraq during the American occupations. Even an attempted attacks on journalists were publicized. Manning’s Cablegate was the single largest disclosure of classified American documents in history. Needless to say, many are interested why Manning would go to such lengths to deface American troops and her allies.

Here is the answer.

Manning’s leaked documents in Cablegate exposed a systematic under reporting of war crimes by Americans in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Many of incidents Manning exposed were unreported killings of civilians, surrendering terrorists being shot to pieces, rapes and murders by unchecked local policemen, sadistic torture, and countless other acts of horror. While often these incidents were noted by American troops, the war crimes were only reported internally; legal actions and reprimands were almost never carried out. This transgression resulted in 15,000 unaccounted for deaths of civilians. These malfeasance were not deliberately masterminded nor broadly coordinated. They just happened; its part of war. There has not been a war in history where such travesties have not occurred and it would be pretentious to assume otherwise

The gut-wrenching letdown is these crimes were allowed to go unreported. To be hidden, to be wished away and forgotten.

The United States, backed by its NATO Allies, went into Afghanistan and Iraq to purge corrupt regimes and install unfettered democracies. Yet they allowed widespread killings, just as the preceding governments did. This conceited hypocrisy devalues the liberties and rights the Allied forces espoused. What Afghan or Iraqi would trust the supporters of rapists and murders? The American-backed governments in these states lost hearts and minds whenever these war crimes went unpunished. The global community may not have known about this secret slaughter, but the civilians on the ground did. They were the ones who lost friends and loved ones. They were the ones who justice was denied. They were the ones who sided with jihadists to claim their righteous vengeance.

The United States has to hold itself to a higher standard. It has to pursue the criminals in its ranks and flush their crimes out publicly. It will be hard and painful, but it is right. If the military can show purge itself of its fiendish criminals it can reclaim the virtue it stands for, winning back the support of the Afghans and the Iraqi nations . As the sadists are rooted out there might be even fewer unintended killings. This transformation was the goal of Bradley Manning’s Cablegate. The cost of such a dream will probably be a life sentence in prison for Bradley Manning. I hope his sacrifice will return righteousness to our armies.

Every would-be world conqueror gets their start playing tactical video games; some classic examples are Civilization, Age of Empires, and StarCraft. A new contender is being added to the list of great strategy games, Planetary Annihilation. This latest real-time strategy vision pioneers a new trail; rather than just a single map being the battle field whole solar systems are up for grabs.

Space, the final frontier … of warfare

The loose premise for Planetary Annihilation is robot armies are fighting each other for galactic control. Fun, right? The real focus of the game is in revolutionary global combat. Most games have square maps which cut off suddenly to prevent flanking armies from falling into the void. In Planetary Annihilation the battlefields are spherical planets. Troops march and fly around the world, doing combat in all three hundred and sixty degrees.

More complex maps add a solar system of battlefields. Moons can be mined. Asteroid can be turned into continental sized missiles. Gas giants fill up the screen as multiple lunar battles take place across space. It is hinted that whole planets can be thrown at unsuspecting opponents.

Already Uber Entertainment, the producers of this strategic and hilarious game, has surpassed their initial goal for Planetary Annihilation. With a whopping $900,000 in pledged funds production has already. Yet as more funds were pledged new ideas were birthed for each new threshold.

Upon passing the $1.1 million dollar barrier water worlds, complete with a whole new variety of aquatic robots, were added to Planetary Annihilation. Two hundred thousand dollars later orbital units were added and gas giants entered the warzone. The next threshold of $1.5 million will add strange new worlds coated with lava and cloaked in metal. The $1.8 million dollar threshold seems to be the most interesting to me; it activates the galactic campaign. By doubling their initial goal battlefields Uber Entertainment will make the whole galaxy open for combat.

The rewards for aiding Planetary Annihilation are both novel and far-flung. $20 will garner you a copy of the game, alongside over 12,000 backers. For $50 you will get a unique commander exclusively to fundraisers, but for $1000 you can get a unique commander made exclusively for you. My favorite option allows you name planets within the game; I think naming a planet after myself might just be worth $150.

I believe that passionate and invested inventors are the best innovators. Now it is time to add Alex Hornstein and Shawn Frayne to the ranks of the Wright Brothers and Alexander Fleming. Our two new revolutionaries are pushing the boundaries of solar energy. They are not pushing them upwards for large panels, instead they invested in small hyper efficient solar panels which can power every small object in any home.

Micro Solar Panels, A Plethora of Opportunities

Small solar plates are increasingly becoming an integral part of the world’s solar supply. In the past, only devices like throwaway calculators and a few outdoorsy tools were powered by small solar panels. Today, there are already niche solar markets arising; everything from cell phone chargers to glow in the dark bricks are powered by the sun.

Most small solar panels are produced in a slow and inefficient manner. There are whole factories dedicated to outdated and time-consuming. Panels are hand glued together; as many as one in five are discarded due to workmanship faults. The annual output of one factory is around a 300,000 units. These panels will last approximately two years, under the best conditions.

Currently, our two new inventors are gathering funds to finalize their invention, the Solar Pocket Factory. Just one of these table-top factories can produce a whopping 2,103,793 panels in a year; a panel can be produced every fifteen seconds. These durable have a ten-year guarantee. The factory can fit in a pickup and run anywhere in the world or even on the go.

This project is currently a favorite on Kickstarter. This grass-roots site connects inventors, innovators, and artists with people who want to support their causes (and get nifty prizes). For instance if you give our lauded innovators a scant $35 they will ship you everything you need to build a few small solar devices with their patented plates. Big spenders can select the $10,000 option; with this prize our inventors bring their micro factory to your hometown and crank out hundreds, if not thousands, of plates and products. A whole town could be powered by one little trip. The future looks sunny.

All eyes are on Iran and its nuclear program. The Iranian government has stated that it pursues only peaceful ends in its new-found interest in uranium enrichment. Israel and the United States have accused Iran of building nuclear WMDs. In this article, Part 1, we will review how Israel and Iran are igniting the next world war and how conventional methods of defusing this situation have failed. In Part 2, we will examine the diplomatic failures which have allowed this situation to persist and worsen. In Part 3 we will review unlikely alternatives which might be able to prevent the United States from being dragged into a 21st century Vietnam.

Why are Iran and Israel Moving Towards War?

Iran and Israel have the keys to peace or war in the Middle East; they both choose war. we can see the rational explanation behind this absurd decision by looking into game theory and the Prisoners’ Dilemma. Both sides have the option of backing down; however, if either side took enacted peaceful measures it would open itself for attack from the opposition. Without mutual trust or a shared allied superpower to help negotiate a thawing of relations these nations are locked onto the war path.

How Will the War Begin on Our Current Course?

Israel has talked openly about a preemptive strike. With a surprise attack Israeli fighter jets plan to cripple the Iranian nuclear program beyond repair. Iran will doubtlessly strike back; igniting a regional war against Israel. The United States will most likely be dragged into the conflict with the inevitable Iranian retaliations. In an American military war-game codenamed Internal Look, which played out many possible scenarios following an Israeli preemptive strike, United States ships were attacked by Iranian planes attempting to intercept the retreating Israel fighters. This is one of dozens of possibilities which could throw American into a pan-Arabian war in one of the world’s most volatile and important regions,

Why is It Important to Prevent War?

Life and energy.

It is of primary importance to maintain peace to prevent wholesale slaughter on a scale not seen since the end of World War Two. Iran uses human waves of millions of loyalists to crush enemies while Israel decimates invaders with overwhelming air power and possibly nuclear. A conflict would kill thousands; if there is an alternative, it must be pursued

Second, oil is something critical to the Middle Oil flow will slow to a trickle if war explodes across the Persian Gulf; either blockades of the Straits of Hormuz or wholesale destruction of regional oil tankers could cut off the world’s energy supply. International blackouts would cause unprecedented chaos.

The question becomes that if war would be so disastrous why would the powers that be allowed it to deteriorate to this strained point? Find the answer in Part 2; it will be up tomorrow.

Outsourcing is the bane of American manufacturing… except for in a little town in Michigan named Saginaw. The great wrecks of the rest belt dot the town. Meanwhile one Nexteer Automotive is adding jobs by the dozens.

Who is injecting money into the American economy? If you were to follow the money trail your answer would be “China.”

In 2010 the national Chinese firm Aviation Industry Corporation bought the factory from General Motors. The previous owners had been determined to sell the plant or demolish it. The Chinese are determined to make a profit. I believe the Chinese are correct in this case, otherwise they would not be investing in new machinery, technology, and above all workers at the same plant that General Motors had given up on.

The lynch pin in the success of the factory under its new leadership has been a stellar relationship with the factory’s union. Careful and respectful negotiations were made concerning wages. Bloated union contracts were watered down; however, the terms were still generous for the plant’s union. New employees are paid less than half of what they would have been paid ten years ago. This matters little to the workers whom are just happy to be employed. Over 600 hundred jobs have been added to the factory in the last two years. More are on the way.

Many workers had apprehensions about the foreign acquisition of Nexteer Automotive. Some worried the firm would be liquidated. Others were concerned the experience and technological knowledge of the employees would be sponged from the plant and the factory itself would be leveled. These fears have been unfounded. Rather than taking away from the plant the Chinese have pledged to invest over 15 billion over the next couple of years. Nexteer Automotive is quickly putting in cutting edge systems to secure the factory’s future. The only criticism Aviation Industry Corporation has of Nexteer Automotive is the factory is not expanding fast enough.

While General Motors, the previous owner of the Nexteer Automotive, had seem only a money pit Aviation Industry Corporation found a gem. The American worker is second to none; it is a proven fact that on average Americans work more diligently and with greater output than any other country in the world. The Chinese are simply cashing in on this hard-won fact. In addition, the highly developed infrastructure throughout American and the sunk costs of existing factories means that future developers will also invest in America. We are the best and most economic choice. In virtually every industry American leads the way with a culture of intrepid determination, it is only right manufacturing is coming back to America.